Wallabies coach says the ref let them down after their loss against the Boks

Under-fire Wallabies coach Michael Cheika was not happy with referee Jerome Garces following his sides loss to the Springboks on Saturday.

Cheika watched on as his side fell to a 23-12 defeat to the Boks in Port Elizabeth, but he was clearly annoyed with some of the calls that Garces made throughout the contest.

Never one to hold back, Cheika used his post-match press conference to highlight two instances where he felt his side had been let down by the referee.

He said the Boks had gotten away with incorrect numbers at the lineout, while he also believed that Bok scrumhalf Faf de Klerk should have been yellow-carded for a deliberate slap-down in the second half.

“In the games we play, when there is a slap-down, our guy keeps going to the sin bin,” Cheika said.

“They’re playing a hard line speed, arms are up in front of the ball and nobody is going anywhere. We need to get some clarity around that because we’re trying to play attacking footy and maybe we shouldn’t. Maybe we should play more kicking.”

On the lineouts, Cheika was equally upset.

“They steal one from us when they’ve got six and we’ve got five, and it’s play on,” he said, before also suggesting that the Boks had been offsides on more than one occasion at the lineout.